Last two years should not be investment benchmark: Steadview Capital's Puneet Kumar

In the post-pandemic world, when the world is not completely dependent on the digital ecosystem, many tech startups end up struggling with growth. Investors too have become more stringent and picky when backing a firm, which has led to the ongoing funding winter.

But Puneet Kumar, Managing Director, Steadview Capital does not believe there is a funding winter. "The way investments were happing in the last couple of years was a rainfall. We should not consider that as a benchmark," said Kumar in a conversation at TechSparks Mumbai.

Along the same lines, Kanika Mayar, Partner, Vertex Ventures (Southeast Asia and India) claims that it is the best time for founders to enter the ecosystem if they are looking to build sustainable businesses.

"During the early stages, a lot of the times, when founders raise money they start focusing on GMV (gross merchandise value), instead of finding the product market fit," said Mayar.

At the moment, there is a lot of dry powder in the market that investors are looking to deploy, she notes. "We are looking at founders who know the profitability dynamics. We are not expecting companies to become profitable instantly but we want to see founders going from zero to one in a good way," she says.

Singapore-headquartered Vertex Ventures has successfully exited the travel portal Yatra and crypto exchange Binance.

The investment firm has backed KukuFM, a regional language podcasting platform, digital-first brand Kapiva, and meat-seller Licious, among others.